state, knew and respected. Be shocked and horrified.
Russ was standing near Cord’s truck, and Cord was beside him, one hand resting on the man’s broad shoulder. After years of obesity, Russ had begun working out, eating right. He was no Adonis, but he wasn’t overweight anymore, either.
Just solid.
“Who’s the girl?” Eli asked, without preamble, when he reached Russ and Cord.
Cord looked irritated, but he didn’t speak.
“She—I don’t know for sure—” Russ stumbled. His eyes were red and his nose was running, and he wiped it unceremoniously on the sleeve of his flannel shirt. “She looks a lot like—like my sister, Bethanne.”
Bethanne Schafer, Eli knew, had run away from home years ago. As far as he knew, no one had seen or heard from her since.
“A relative?” Eli pressed, though not so abruptly this time.
“Bethanne’s daughter, maybe,” Russ said, snuffling again. Looking understandably miserable. “Kinda reminds me of when Carly showed up, looking so much like Reba—”
“We’re going to need a cheek swab, Russ,” Eli said. “Stop by the coroner’s office as soon as you can manage it.”
Russ merely nodded. “Can I go home now?” He watched as the paramedics loaded the body into the back of the ambulance, zipped into a bag. “I feel sick.”
“Yeah,” Eli replied. “You can go home.”
Russ ambled off toward the motel.
Eli and Cord stood in silence for a long time, watching each other.
“Sometimes you really piss me off,” Cord said, at long last.
Eli grinned, but it was reflexive, entirely lacking humor. “Is that supposed to be news? I’ve pissed you off plenty of times, and I’ll do it plenty of times in the future.” He stopped. Sighed. “I’m just doing my job, Cord. You know that. Russ found the body, and there might be a family connection. That means I have to check him out.”
Cord looked mildly chagrined. “I know. But I was here, Eli. I saw Russ’s reaction. He screamed like a little girl, and then he threw up in the bushes.”
“Where were you at the time?”
Cord put a hand to his chest in mock cooperation. “When Russ barfed? Or when he found the body?” He didn’t wait for an answer, and he remained in smart-ass mode. “Well, Sheriff, I was on the other side of the lot, making sure I had my story straight. Hiding evidence. When I’m not training horses, loving my smart, beautiful wife or grounding my impetuous daughter for sneaking out to meet your nephew in the middle of the night, I like to plan my next murder.”
“Okay, butthole, I get your point. Here’s mine. I needed to know how Russ acted when he found that poor girl lying there with a bullet hole in her throat, and you told me.” A beat passed, and Eli started to walk away, paused, looked back and said, “Keep Carly close to home for a while. Something’s up with Eric—he got a threat from Freddie Lansing last night, during the shindig at Bailey’s, and I’m taking steps to make sure the little bastard doesn’t follow through on it. I don’t want Carly caught in the crossfire.”
Cord’s expression turned dead solemn. “You can’t just say something like that and then walk away, Eli. If my daughter is in danger, I need to know the details.”
“And you will. Soon—very soon—but not now. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m up to my ass in alligators at the moment—nothing like a dead body to throw a wrench in the works.”
All true. It would be a long, long day.
Melba was waiting when Eli returned to the spot where the young woman had been killed. Everyone else was gone.
“What’s the plan?” she asked, though she knew, of course.
Eli might have replied, The usual—an autopsy, meetings with other jurisdictions to hammer out who would handle what, interviews with Russ Schafer and anybody else with even a remote connection to the dead girl.
“First thing—we order DNA tests. If there’s a match, we’ll at least have something to go on as far as identifying the girl. You and the rest of the team can ask around, show pictures, see if anybody recognizes her. I can’t peg her as a local, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t. People come and go all the time, like they do any other place.”
“That will take time. The DNA thing, I mean.”
Sometimes Melba, in her thoroughness, could be pedantic.
DNA tests always took time because every lab in the country was perpetually backed up. Sad commentary on the state of the nation, in Eli’s opinion.
“Yes,” Eli replied evenly.